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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • Also in America cut is so normal that people may prefer it because they’re used to it.

    But also, it’s fucking wild to argue to cut a piece off your baby’s genitals because of what future partners may mildly prefer. I wasn’t circumcised because my mom was firmly against the practice and I’m grateful for that.

    And to add my anecdotes, back when I had a dick the foreskin never got in the way of me getting laid, and one ex was super excited to learn I had it.


  • As an American who wasn’t circumcised, this country is so fucking weird about it. Like I got teased for it occasionally. People talk about hygiene, but from what I hear you’re unlikely to find a guy who cleans his asshole but not his foreskin. Like, do what you want with your body, get circumcised if you want, bifurcate the thing if you want, I don’t even have a dick anymore, but circumcising babies is taking that freedom away from them for reasons that always sound ludicrous to me.

    And for the attractiveness thing, I’ve had exes who think foreskin is really hot, and personally I think dicks look super weird without it.


  • Have you considered plumbing? Civil engineering? Becoming a physician or nurse? Installing solar panels? Even a fair amount of manufacturing does something that the world is better off for having it, and within that, supportive work is still meaningful because it enables that good to happen.

    Yes, the distribution of resources and organization of labor are alienating in our society, but there’s work that improves the world and there’s satisfaction in doing it.









  • Yeah, also just, when I’m active moving my body takes less effort. I’ve got more muscle, a stronger heart and lungs, and I’m typically more trim. I’m also getting more sun.

    And yeah competetive exercise is great if you love it, but I find only functional gains improve how I feel. Speed is good if I need to build cardio (I normally ride at a leisurely pace), but I like sticking to aerobic and keeping it at a pace I enjoy, mostly ramping up my capacity in distance and terrain. It’s far more valuable for me to be able to bike my mental health better or keep up with a riding group than to achieve a personal best.



  • I’m 31 and have been in and out of shape my entire adult life, and yeah, I’m not surprised by either of your comments. When I’m out of shape I have no energy to even do all my chores and I definitely don’t have time, but by some miracle spending half an hour to an hour of biking most days leaves me with more time and energy after the initial hump. Add in some bodyweight exercises and for some reason then I have the time and energy to keep my home clean.

    I don’t know why I let the periods of tiredness go on as long as I do.


  • I think taking the American pursuit of freedom as a given is an incorrect assumption. Freedom is used here not as an idea that must be analyzed and fought for, but as an identity marker that’s trotted out to defend oneself both from others disapproval or disallowal of one’s actions and as a cudgel against those whose actions one disapproves of.

    The easiest place to see this is in the concept of religious freedom. The same people who harp on religious freedom often want to declare America a Christian nation. They’ll whine and sue that their religious freedom is being attacked when they’re expected to treat a gay couple as married, but they’ll stand firm when other religions demanded the right to marry gay people, or when people wanted the religious right to psychedelic use (including indigenous use of peyote).

    I’ve been reading The Dawn of Everything and it brings up indigenous critiques of European settlers, especially those attributed to Kondiaronk, and some of these groups have a much more complete and realistic understanding of freedom than even the better end of the average American today. And yeah the book goes into how their perception of freedom includes duties to enable others to actually engage in it. The freedom to move far away requires the duty to show hospitality.

    When many Americans talk about freedom these days it’s just a virtue signal, regardless of if the virtue is actually possessed. We still do have those who genuinely believe in freedom, the ACLU remains as such, but they were considered radical from the start.